ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – The Ann Arbor Fire Department recently responded to two fires caused by lithium-ion batteries that broke out 48 hours apart.
The first was at the downtown restaurant Pretzel Bell; the second occurred at a private residence on the 700 block of S. Seventh Street.
“At the Pretzel Bell, that battery was put on top of some electrical switchgear, which we believe overheated the battery, so that was improper storage,” said Ann Arbor Fire Chief Mike Kennedy. “The second one, the battery was being charged, and it went into thermal runaway. When batteries go into thermal runaway, there’s such complete destruction, it’s really hard for us to tell what the exact cause of it was, but we believe it had something to do with the battery itself and the charger.”
Fires from the batteries tend to ignite quickly and can be difficult for crews to control.
A video released by the Fire Safety Research Institute shows…
